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INTRODUCTION This Was the Second Leg in a Month-Long

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INTRODUCTION This was the second leg in a month-long trip to the South Pacific & Australia with my wife, Louise; visiting New Caledonia (1 week) and Fiji (2 weeks), before spending a week taking things slightly easier in the Blue Mountains, east of Sydney on our way home. This report covers the Fiji leg; reports of our other two destinations can be found at www.cloudbirders.com. Fiji is an archipelago comprising 330 islands, though only 3 of main inhabited islands need to be visited to see the majority of the country’s very special birds. The species list is not particularly long – we saw just over 60 species in 2 weeks, but there are several examples of inter-island sub-speciation (Fiji Whistler, for example, has very different looking variants between the islands) that add further interest. Cyclone Winston in 2016 had a devastating effect on the islands and, whilst we saw very little impact on the infrastructure during our visit, the effect on habitat was glaringly obvious in places, with large swathes of forest snapped and broken, as we observed on the hillside immediately behind our lodge on Kadavu (pronounced “Kan-darvu” – all Fijian words with a “d” are pronounced with a preceding “n”). Bobby’s Farm on Taveuni, renowned as the best place to see Orange Dove and a good site for Silktail, was particularly hard-hit and, at least for now, is no longer worth visiting for birds, according to locals. Despite this, we managed to see all species expected on our itinerary and only used local guides for single days on Taveuni and Viti Levu to help with the trickier ones. The Fijian people are exceptionally warm and welcoming and almost everyone you meet, even passers-by, will greet you with a broad smile and “Bula” (literally “life”, but commonly used as “Hello”). There is a laid- back feel to the place and you soon get used to things happening at their own pace – “Fiji-time” in the local vernacular - and the ironic title of Fiji Airways in-flight magazine, though we were pleased to find that aviation generally ran to a tighter schedule (at least for us; more on that later…). PLANNING With lots of island-hopping required for our itinerary, we entrusted the services of Sicklebill Safaris (http://new.s2travel.com.au/pages/contact/) to make sense of the complicated flight schedules to arrange as efficient an itinerary as possible. Run by Phil & Sue Gregory, they probably know the South Pacific better than anyone, and the arrangements ended up running generally very smoothly (for that part of the world…) and enabled us to see all our expected target species without too much effort. ITINERARY Aug 24th 2018 Arrive Nadi (pronounced “Nan-dee”), Fiji from Noumea, New Caledonia (Air Caledonie, 1300-1550). Overnight at Fiji Gateway Hotel (https://www.fijigateway.com/). Aug 25th 2018 Fly Nadi – Taveuni. (Fiji Airways, 0700-0825). Birding along road to north & south of hotel. Overnight Garden Island Resort (https://www.gardenislandresort.com/). Very comfortable, with excellent food and very helpful and attentive staff. Aug 26th 2018 All day birding up the track to Des Veoux Peak with local guide Boro (Tel +679 9684170) and rental 4WD arranged through reception desk at hotel. Overnight Garden Island Resort. Aug 27th 2018 Exploring north end of island in rental vehicle. Birded Qeleni Road in morning. In afternoon, arranged a short boat trip through local dive shop into Somosomo Strait for close views of boobies and dolphins. Aug 28th 2018 Pre-breakfast birding along road north of hotel. Flight to Nadi (Fiji Airways,0850-1015), connecting to Suva (Fiji Airways, 1100-1145). Afternoon birding around lodge and near the Colo-i-Suva Park rangers’ office. Overnight Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Eco Lodge (https://www.coloisuva.com.fj/). Rooms fairly basic, but comfortable; good food and great birding on site & nearby. Aug 29th 2018 Birding Colo-i-Suva Park (Big Dakua Trail to Lower Pools returning via Waisila Falls Trail). Late pm, taxi to Suva to collect rental car from Budget. Overnight Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Eco Lodge. Aug 30th 2018 Early departure for 2.5 hour drive to Monasavu, accompanied by local guide Vido (pronounced Vindo; tel +679 8642242) and his wife, Ma’. Overnight Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Eco Lodge. Aug 31st 2018 Morning birding Pipeline Road. Returned to Suva to drop off car in afternoon. Overnight Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Eco Lodge. Sept 1st 2018 Morning birding main entrance road in Colo-i-Suva Park. Afternoon walk from lodge to Pipeline Road junction via Colo-i-Suva village. Overnight Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Eco Lodge. Sept 2nd 2018 Early morning flight to Nadi (Fiji Airways, 0615-0645), then flight to Kadavu (Fiji Airways, 1045-1135). Boat transfer to Matana Beach Resort (http://matanabeachresort.com/); rather run down, but now under new management with comfortable and good homely food. Afternoon birding cyclone-ravaged hillside behind resort. Sept 3rd 2018 Boat trip to Ono Island for snorkelling with Manta Rays. Overnight Matana Beach Resort. Sept 4th 2018 Boat transfer to Vunisea to meet driver to take us along the Vunisea – Namara road. Birded road all morning. Afternoon relaxing. Overnight Matana Beach Resort. Sept 5th 2018 Retuned to Vunisea – Namara road, getting a lift to previous day’s Whistling Dove spot & walking back to town. Afternoon relaxing. Overnight Matana Beach Resort. Sept 6th 2018 Birded hillside behind resort for a couple of hours early morning. Rest of day relaxing. Overnight Matana Beach Resort. Sept 7th 2018 Relaxing morning before transfer to airport for flight to Nadi (Fiji Airways, 1205-1255). Onward flight to Sydney (Fiji Airways, 1830-2125). WEATHER Having left the unbearable summer of the UAE behind, the weather was typically a pleasant 25-30C, with the occasional hotter day. We experienced generally good, sunny weather, though our days on Taveuni were cloudy, with persistent heavy drizzle & rain on Des Veoux Peak. We had one rain shower at Suva and heavy overnight rain on our last night on Kadavu, with low cloud and showers on our final morning before departure. GETTING AROUND Fiji Airways’ island-hopping network of small planes is easy and efficient, with most flights departing and arriving via Nadi. Most of the less popular and off-peak flights are serviced by Twin Otter aircraft seating 19 passengers only. Luggage and passengers are weighed at check-in to optimise weigh distribution within the plane – slightly discomforting for those sensitive about their body weight. There is a 15kg limit on checked baggage which does not appear to be strictly enforced – we had 18kg each and were only asked once to pay excess baggage – on our sixth and final flight, although my objections eventually led to it being waived. Despite flights running to schedule for us, weather conditions must inevitably have an impact on such aircraft being able to fly. Our departure from Kadavu on our last (rainy) morning was almost cancelled when the incoming flight nearly had to turn around and return to Nadi. Fortunately, a brief break in the clouds allowed the pilot to descend below the cloudbase for landing – otherwise we would probably have missed our onward international flight. With hindsight, it would be wise to allow a day in Nadi at the end of the trip as a buffer against cancellations, especially if visiting during the wetter months. It is also advisable to reconfirm flight schedules before leaving home, especially if the flights have been booked many months in advance. Whilst we had no issues (our flights were only booked a couple of months ahead), two couples in our lodge both suffered schedule changes. One couple misread a mail notifying them of a date change – and only realised the evening before they thought they were due to fly - three days after their rescheduled flight had departed! They were extremely lucky that the twice-weekly ferry between Kadavu and Viti Levu was departing the following day, allowing them to reach Suva in 9 hours, followed by a 4 hour drive to Nadi, just in time for their onward international flight. Following this episode, the other couple wisely decided to reconfirm their flights for the next day, only to discover that it had been cancelled and they would have to spend another night in the resort. We, on the other hand, just turned up and hoped… In most cases, we did not need to venture very far from our bases on each island, so hotel transfers via taxi or shuttle bus were all that was required. On Taveuni, we rented a beat-up 4WD to drive up the eroded track to Des Veoux. The rental arrangements were rather informal – basically cash in hand to the owner; no paperwork, no hassle, and no clutch… Arrangements were more formal on Viti Levu (car necessary for the long and very bumpy drive to Monasavu for Long-legged Thicketbird), though the vehicle quality no better – this time a clutch, but no suspension! Road quality varied widely; main arteries were generally well surfaced, but quality rapidly deteriorated the further you went from them – most inland roads were gravel/dirt; fine (if bone-shaking) when dry, possibly lethal in the wet. Navigation was easy with a free GPS app on my phone, preloaded with a map of Fiji before we left home. We used Sygic (https://www.sygic.com/gps-navigation), which allows unlimited map downloads and doesn’t require data, merely the phone’s GPS connection. MAIN SITES VISITED 1. TAVEUNI The easternmost island, a 90 minute flight from Nadi and bisected by the 180 meridian – exactly on the other side of the world to the UK.
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